Well if Ogbonna gets picked ahead of Balbuena again, I think we all have to assume he is putting him in the shop window. There could be no other logical reason. Shame his value's probably gone down though.

Start with Grady, we are safe. "Grady run round make a nuisance of yourself give Lanzini an option, run at them have a go". If you have to ring Perez on give him 10mins so there is less damage to cause

we need to buy a decent left back, not a wingback, a proper left backwe need to promote young johnson to fight for the rb position with fredericks (I think zaba will be off)we need another centre back to replace reid we need at least one, possibly two central midfield players to help out declan and gives us some legswe need to move on the overpaid/disinterested forwards and buy two genuine goalscorers, not converted wingers or rejects like mitrovic. get husillos scouting worldwide for a couple of young, physically strong strikers

IMHO There are a number of problem positions and that includes the 2 full backs who are simply not oft the quality or in one case age to handle the Premiership but the biggest issue which has yet to be solved by a succession of managers is the lack of pace and strength to win the all important midfield battle. Moyes like Bilic like BFS had most success playing 5 i there. Even Pellegrini has seen us look far better defensively with a midfield 5 which he tends to go for when playing the better sides. He wants to play like a big team as he calls it on the front foot so as to speak. But once we do that with 2 up front and attacking minded players like Anderson and Lanzini and Antonio we are often out worked and overrun. Everton like so many teams this season especially knew if they pressed us and gave no time and did not give us time on the ball they could benefit from errors and poor passing. We are relying on Rice and the slow legs of Noble to do all the defending. Anderson does sometimes track back but not the likes of Lanzini, Antonio. Snodgrass tries to but is also not the quickestWe need all or most of our players in midfield and even up front to work when not in possession. Too many looking to others to do that. Obiang too pedestrian too and weak in possession. Watch City, Liverpool even Arsenal and Spurs. All their midfield and forwards are expected to do the Barcelona thing of trying to win back the ball asap.

The squad has some quality players but like I say needs some more workers, team players that compete but still technically good enough to pass accurately at pace. We should be poking long term and identifying younger players too. We have been over paying for past their best players for too long too

I have seen some progress and like some of what Pellegrini is trying to do but he needs another season or two and some decent money through trading players if necessary to improve the overall quality of the squad and address the critical area of midfield. Win the midfield and you usually win the game or have a much better chance of winning it.

It’s about time I posted a big , war and peace response. I know there are many on here who were worried I was not well as I had recently been limiting my responses to only 2 or 3 sentences. Verbal diarrhoea Alf is back !! ;-)

We need to get new players in, but Saturday was more annoying cos there were four players who were left out of the starting line-up, who are clearly better than those who started, Baldbuena/Ogbonna, Noble/Obiang, Antonio/Snodgrass and Hernandez/Perez.

Yes. The bloke has won league titles and qualified sides for the CL. That is more than any other manager we have ever had at West Ham.

So, yes, I am a lot more comfortable when we lose with him as manager as I was with other managers.

He definitely has the ability to turn it around. As I said, we always expect to lose. But is the manner of the recent losses. And I think where he is struggling at the moment is the enigma that is West Ham.

It's fucking confused us lot for as long as I can remember so its going to take him a little while to crack the code. But I am sure he will. But he must be scratching his head at the moment because where do these performances come from? It just beggars belief.

He needs to do work on the defence. Coach them to cut out individual mistakes which is costing us. And whoever the players are that have already gone on holiday he needs to drag them back in.

I think we have gone forward under MP but definitely lost out way now. Need to finish strongly and then get the squad sorted in the summer.